Today, Bungie announced that it would be going in a “new path,” as chief executive officer Pete Parsons put it. That new path involves laying off 17% of the studio’s workforce, or 220 employees.
It also meant a shuffling of roles where 155 developers are having their roles integrated into Sony Interactive Entertainment.
Interestingly though, a third major shuffling of employees has gone farther than a layoff or just joining SIE proper, as another 75 developers are being spun-off into their own studio, to work on a game that began its life at Bungie as a brand new sci-fi action title.
“We are working with PlayStation Studios leadership to spin out one of our incubation projects,” Parsons said in the blog post announcing the changes.
“An action game set in a brand-new science-fantasy universe – to form a new studio within PlayStation Studios to continue its promising development.”
In the post, Parsons goes on to describe how the studio tried taking on too many projects which resulted in its talent been “stretched too thin, too quickly.”
Whatever this project is surely contributed to that, but it’s better to know that these 75 employees will at least still have a job and a place to work on this game, instead of the project being cancelled and their jobs cut.
Perhaps this could become the one silver lining out of this mass layoff, which is otherwise immensely disappointing to see.
Source – [Bungie]